The Memphis Redbirds are so impressive. The Redbirds bludgeoned Tacoma’s staff for ten runs on 17 hits, but the most impressive thing is the production from players not considered ‘prospects’. Breyvic Valera, Rangel Ravelo, Wilfredo Tovar, and Alberto Rosario combined to go 11-for-25 with five RBI’s. The prospects, comprising the middle of the order, did fine as well; each of them recorded a hit. But the consistent production from everyone in the Memphis lineup is what sets them apart. Hats off to manager Stubby Clapp and hitting coach Mike Budaska for the work they’ve done at Triple-A this season.

Oscar Mercado struggled in July, hitting just .185/.209/.259 as he struggled with a shoulder injury, but he’s found his power stroke in August; he’s hit two long home runs in his last three games. It looked like it might be a lost season for Eli Alvarez. After spending two months on the DL with an ankle injury, he’s 4-for-10 with two doubles and a homer since returning on July 31. Chris Ellis turned in his finest outing of the year, in large part due to his biting curve ball. Two of his teammates (Dakota Hudson and Jack Flaherty) have been promoted, so Ellis will have the chance to prove himself over the final month of the season.

Palm Beach 1, Clearwater 3

The Palm Beach offense has really struggled of late. They only recorded one extra base hit last night and no player recorded more than one hit. On the plus side, Jordan Hicks has been really good. Baseball America named him to their July prospect All-Star team. Despite going just five innings, he was efficient. It took him only 59 pitches (37 strikes) to get through his outing as the Cardinals continue to be careful with their low-level arms.

Kramer Robertson broke out of his slump in a big way with four hits. We discussed him at length in the first episode of Prospect To Be Named Later. Both Nick Plummer and Dylan Carlson have been out of the lineup the last two days but there is no injury news to report. After a successful run at State College to start the season, Shew has struggled with a 4.87 ERA in 20 1/3 innings for Peoria.

Scott Hurst has found his footing after a slow start to his pro career. He’s hitting .304/.377/.478 overall and .317 over his last ten games. Evan Mendoza was this week’s short season hitter of the week, so read more about him here. Edwin Figuera is kind of interesting. He’s a nineteen-year-old shortstop who’s hit .324 over his last ten games and stolen eight bases on the season, and he’s hit at the top of State College lineup of late.

The middle of the Johnson City order (Pinder-Ynfante-Rodriguez-Bandes) did some serious damage last night. They combined to go 9-for-17 with four extra-base hits and six RBI. I can finally feel good about Delvin Perez’s performance: he combined a solid day at the plate with a clean game in the field and on the bases.